Right, they're built for the lottery. I just don't see what they have to gain by having someone else take over halfway through the season. Although rumor has it they're handing the reins to the guy they want, Lindsey Hunter. Maybe they're just letting him get some experience since Gentry wouldn't have been back next year anyway.

Right, they're built for the lottery. I just don't see what they have to gain by having someone else take over halfway through the season. Although rumor has it they're handing the reins to the guy they want, Lindsey Hunter. Maybe they're just letting him get some experience since Gentry wouldn't have been back next year anyway.

No, I don't think they were built for the lottery at the start of the season. In fact they haven't been playing the lottery game, and their philosophy (since they've hired Lon Babby) has been to try and lure free agents (instead of get new players through the draft) while staying competitive.

This season though things came undone when it was announced that Channing Frye would be out for the season. I think they're still confident that they can be competitive, but it hasn't turned out that way. Gentry isn't the reason they're struggling (it's not enough decent players, and not having Frye to stretch the floor seems to have hurt them a lot).

So the fact that they've fired Gentry tells me that may be they want to try and play the lottery game because I don't think Gentry would allow the team to tank the way Mark Jackson did for the GSW tankers last year. I wouldn't be surprised if they start trading Gortat, etc, and really blow it up.